The Security Mess I was up too late last night. I intended to be good, but in clicking down the dial I happened on a re-run of the 1985 film “The Falcon and the Snowman.” Coke dealer Daulton Lee was played by actor Sean Penn, who wore a bad wig. His drug habit was what […]

I am not completely sure why I got out of bed this morning. The weekly meeting yesterday was surreal, the heavy fall of the second boot. After all our little reports around the table, the account of our strivings and connivings, the Boss made the announcement that the office as we knew it was going […]

Knights of God The Council of Holy Warriors, a shell organization fronted by Sunni Iraqis to cover foreign participation in the Iraqi insurgency, has announced on its website the selection of the new CEO of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, RIP, has been replaced by a fellow named Abu Hamza al-Muhajir. No picture […]

Three prisoners staged an act of political theater at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. No, wait a minute. I am using the wrong words. Three Detainees were driven mad by abuse and were forced to take their own lives by the inhuman and illegal prison managed by the U.S. government on sovereign Cuban soil. […]

It was a curious coincidence. I was going to a funeral on my birthday. CAPT William Hatch had passed away on the on the 6th of June, the sixty-second anniversary of the landings at Normandy. When he died, he was the oldest living naval intelligence officer. I did not know him personally, but I edit […]

It did not occur to me at first, my brain not working until sufficient caffeine is placed piping-hot into my bloodstream. It was about the hundred and twenty-third minute of the waking morning that it dawned on me that this is a day of special significance for Socotra Enterprises. It is five years since I […]

I get letters from the Veteran’s Administration, which is nothing unusual. Millions of former service people do. Every couple years I hear about the status of my claim. I saw a doctor last year to clarify a written statement I made the year before that, and expect they will notify me of a decision, maybe […]

The editors of the New York Times must be disappointed today. They ran another lead story about an intelligence failure. They like to do that, keep our attention on the bobbles and set-backs so we lose our confidence and question our way. The lead  story was about the CIA-funded operation run out of the Station […]

Number of the Beast It is D-Day. There is far more reason to celebrate today than there is to cower below the bed. The celebration should be real, a tribute to men brave and not brave, who crossed the English Channel in small boats and climbed the sand dunes and began the long walk east […]

Unintended Consequences I was watching “60 minutes” last night, which is an unusual occurrence, an unintended consequence of the transition to the summer season. I emerged from the pool a few minutes before closing and padded across the deck with my towel. I said goodnight to Igor, the lifeguard, who looked a bit tired. It […]